Trump says US won’t sell fighter jets to Turkey

Tue., July 16, 2019, 12:30 p.m.

In this Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2015, file photo, an F-35 jet arrives at its new operational base at Hill Air Force Base, in northern Utah. President Donald Trump says the U.S. is not going to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey after Ankara decided to buy a missile defense system from Russia. (Rick Bowmer / AP)

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump says the U.S. is not going to sell F-35 fighter jets to Turkey after Ankara decided to buy a missile defense system from Russia.

The Trump administration has repeatedly told Turkey that it will be cut off from buying F-35s if it buys the S-400 Russian air defense system because it’s incompatible with NATO defenses and could jeopardize sensitive information about F-35 technologies. Turkey is a member of NATO.

Trump blamed the Obama administration for never reaching a deal to sell an American missile defense system to Turkey.

He says Turkey had ordered more than 100 F-35s but because it bought a Russian missile system, the U.S. can’t sell it billions of dollars’ worth of aircraft.